Outside Yanzhou City, withered yellow grass rustled in the wind.
This is a place that has not been flooded, yet the people still live in great hardship.
Chen Liang stood on a dilapidated earthen platform. His coarse linen clothes had long since faded from washing, but a rusty iron sword hung at his waist.
He was thin with high cheekbones, but his eyes were strikingly bright, like two inextinguishable flames.
Hundreds of people, dressed in tattered clothes, gathered below the stage. There were old men leaning on wooden sticks, women carrying babies on their backs, and many more young and middle-aged people who were pale and thin.
Their straw sandals were covered in mud, but their eyes shone with the same light.
"Fellow villagers!" Chen Liang's voice was hoarse but powerful, "The government has requisitioned our grain, skinned us alive, and even swallowed up the disaster relief funds after the snow disaster!"
He suddenly ripped open his shirt, revealing a hideous whip mark on his chest. "This was a gift from that corrupt official when I went to the county government last month to demand an explanation!"
A furious murmur erupted from the crowd. Suddenly, a one-armed old man raised a machete: "Rebellion! We're all going to die anyway, might as well fight to the death!"
That night, a raging fire broke out at the Yanzhou County government office.
When the magistrate's three thousand bushels of grain hidden in the secret room were emptied, Chen Liang, standing on his official robe, threw the grain bags to the starving people one by one.
In the firelight, the shadows on his face flickered: "From this day forward, there will be no more exorbitant taxes in Yanzhou! Those who are willing to follow me are my brothers!"
…
Inside the dilapidated temple, Chen Liang squatted beside the fire, poking at the burning firewood with a twig.
The firelight illuminated his rugged face, outlining its deep contours. The one-eyed old man sat opposite him, his cloudy single eye also gleaming eerily in the firelight.
"Have you heard?" Chen Liang lowered his voice, a strange glint in his eyes. "Over in Qingzhou, the followers of the Mountain Goddess are all incredibly powerful; they can even control floods!"
"I've heard about it," the one-eyed old man said in a hoarse voice. "There are those that can control water, those that can make plants grow, and even those that can turn into shadows to kill people."
Chen Liang gripped the iron sword tightly, his knuckles turning white: "If only we could also recruit such extraordinary individuals..."
The one-eyed old man grinned, revealing his broken, yellow teeth: "Then this world might not be something we can't fight for."
A flame of ambition ignited in Chen Liang's eyes: "Pass down the word: anyone who possesses extraordinary abilities, join my Chen family army, and you will have meat at every meal. Those who make contributions will be rewarded with land and houses!"
In any case, they have seized many places and acquired a lot of land in the past few days! In the future, these lands and various gold and silver treasures will be used to distribute to meritorious officials and to recruit more extraordinary people!
The one-eyed old man nodded and took out a crumpled piece of parchment from his pocket, on which several symbols were drawn crookedly.
“When I was young, I traveled to many places and knew a few capable people. I can try to contact them.”
Chen Liang took the parchment, his fingertips trembling slightly: "Alright! As long as they're willing to come, I, Chen Liang, will definitely not treat them unfairly!"
…
Seven days later, the name "Chen Family Army" had spread throughout the villages of Yanzhou.
Because this rebel army initially had few clothes and most of their food was distributed to the disaster-stricken people, they could only charge into battle wearing sacks, and were thus known to outsiders as the Sack Army.
Now, this "sack army" has begun to gain momentum, and the extraordinary individuals that Chen Liang had been longing to see have also come to join them.
Inside the dilapidated temple, Chen Liang was sketching a topographical map on the wall with a charcoal pencil.
Suddenly the temple door was pushed open, and a tall, thin man wearing a straw hat stepped in.
The moment he took off his straw hat, all the oil lamps in the temple went out for a moment, and the man's eyes had no pupils, only two eerie green will-o'-the-wisps.
"I heard you're recruiting extraordinary people?" The man's voice was like sandpaper scraping. "My family can communicate with the yin and yang, and can predict your fortune."
Before Chen Liang could answer, another commotion arose outside the door.
"Make way! Make way!" A burly man, as tall as an iron tower, squeezed through the temple gate in a rough voice.
With each step he took, the ground trembled slightly, revealing bulging muscles on his exposed arms and skin that was a rocky grayish-white.
Even more astonishing was the woman in plain clothes who floated in afterward. Her feet did not touch the ground, and the white silk extending from her sleeves moved like a living thing, gently lifting the incense burner covered in dust on the offering table.
Chen Liang's eyes grew brighter and brighter. He had heard of these extraordinary people, who were called "demons" by the government and regarded as "oddballs" by the people, hiding in the shadows all year round.
And now, they are standing in front of him one by one.
"Good! Good!" He slammed his hand on the table and stood up, his iron sword clanging against the incense table. "From this day forward, you are all honored guests of the Chen family army!"
…
The news spread like wildfire.
The hunter who can tame wild beasts in the mountains has arrived, and the vagrant who can start a fire with a simple pinch of his hands has arrived!
There was even a beggar with a head full of scabies who performed a trick of regenerating a severed finger in public.
The most astonishing thing was a young medicine boy who came out of the desolate mountains in his early years. It is said that when he scattered seeds, they could sprout into thorny bushes that were ten feet tall in the blink of an eye. Moreover, his medical skills were superb!
"Have you heard?" In teahouses throughout Yanzhou, people whispered among themselves, "The Chen family army has allocated houses to those capable people, and they have meat at every meal!"
"That's right!" the old man selling steamed buns said in a low voice. "My nephew saw it with his own eyes. One of them could breathe fire and became a vanguard general!"
On the official road, a group of officials escorting tax silver in their carriages suddenly had their wheels tangled in vines.
When they cut down the thorns, they found that all the escorting soldiers were asleep, and the tax money had vanished.
A new line of words was carved on the tree trunk.
"Taken from the people, returned to the people, Chen Family Army's charitable granary."
…
The latest news from Yanzhou, the capital of Liang, was slammed to the ground.
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